[Sca-cooks] A bewilderment...

[Edouard de Bruyerecourt]

I live in "Veganville", often called Ashland by mapmakers. The vegan 
population is such that a district manager of a regional chain of coffee 
houses mentioned that for most of their stores, they can hardly give 
away soy milk, while here they practically deliver it in barrels.

A couple of years ago, musing on the plethora of non-meat substitutes, I 
opined that we weren't that far from the meat-free, gluten-free, 
dairy-free 'bacon double cheeseburger'. Then I realized that we probably 
were already there. I went to a local store and found the incrediantes 
to make such a sandwich. (Actually, I had to go to two different 
stores). The hardest part was finding a gluten-free fake 'meat' patty.

I gave my brother, who does cowboy action shooting, fur trade 
renedezvous, and French & Indian War reenactments on the US east coast, 
a couple of packages of vegetarian 'jerky' quite common around here, as 
a joke. His facial expression was worth it.

A girlfriend of years ago, who was a bit 'amused' at my like for pulses 
and legumes, suddenly got on this vegetarian kick when the young, slim, 
pretty and vegitarian neighbor mentioned these bean-based vegi-burgers 
she always ate. The girlfriend bought them, cooked them up and served 
them for dinner. I approached them more as a vegetable entree (like a 
bean 'latke') and found them tasty with a little HP sauce on them. I got 
to eat hers. She took one bit, expecting non-meat to taste just like 
real meat. I had no such illusions.

I hold suspect the who philosophy of taking a food dish based on meat, 
sugar, wheat, milk, etc, and attempting to make a identical or close 
fake substitute. I feel it's a better approach to taking the food you've 
chosen to eat and making tasty dishes that suit it's qualities.

-- 
Edouard, Sire de Bruyerecourt
bruyere at jeffnet.org
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"After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument
 than why I have one." - Cato the Elder (234-149 BC)